One click button to open up multiple tabs at once?

February 17, 2009 5:21 PM

One click button to open up multiple tabs at once (firefox)?

I have seven websites which I visit each morning to get my daily news. For each section of news (Local, UK, Technology, Business, World, Media, Gossip) I use a different news source.

Here is my current list (make of it what you think).

Local - The News & Star (local newspaper)
UK - The Times
Technology - The Independent
Business - BBC News
World - The New York Times
Media - Media Guardian
Gossip - The Sun

What I would like to do is simply press one button (a simple bookmark) on my Firefox bookmark toolbar and have each website section open up in a new tab.

Is there a way of doing this either by using a Firefox plugin or some coding.

Thanks,

William

posted by nam3d to technology (18 answers total)

1. Open each site in a tab
2. Click Bookmarks -> Bookmark all Tabs
3. Type in a name (e.g., "Morning tabs")

Tomorrow morning
1. open the bookmarks menu
2. Expand your newly created bookmark menu
3. Select "Open all in tabs" (last item).

Ta da!
posted by jclovebrew at 5:25 PM on February 17, 2009

I use an addon called Morning Coffee which pretty much does exactly this. You can also just open all the tabs the way you like them and go to preferences - main and click the "use current pages" button and it will bookmark all seven pages as your "home page" The downside is you'll get these back any time you use the home button. The upside is you'll get them back with one click.
posted by jessamyn at 5:26 PM on February 17, 2009

I do this. I have a folder on my bookmarks toolbar marked "dailies" and I right click it, and select "open all in tabs."
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:27 PM on February 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the responses so far, I've searched a bit and found out about jclovebrew method and the plugin recommended by jessamyn. Could a script be written so that I can click a bookmark and it opens multiple tabs at once?
posted by nam3d at 5:32 PM on February 17, 2009

No, no, no.

Tools
->Options
->Startup -> Homepage
List as many websites as you want. Separate with a pipe: |.

http://www.yahoo.com|http://www.metafilter.com|http://ilikesmallchildren.com

Whatever. Make sure you have it set to open your homepage when you start the browser. All set.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:34 PM on February 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

I do what C.D. suggests...works great.
posted by Kickstart70 at 5:42 PM on February 17, 2009

wtildesley: "Thanks for the responses so far, I've searched a bit and found out about jclovebrew method and the plugin recommended by jessamyn. Could a script be written so that I can click a bookmark and it opens multiple tabs at once?"

It's even easier than that: just put all the stuff you want to open in a bookmarks folder on your toolbar and middle-click it.
posted by TypographicalError at 5:49 PM on February 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Or actually, you can even middle-click in the bookmarks in your menubar.
posted by TypographicalError at 5:50 PM on February 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

I do what Civil_Disobediant suggests but haven't used it in forever. Instead, I just have Firefox [Show my windows and tabs from last time] in the Tools/Options Main tab, Startup section.
posted by geekyguy at 6:00 PM on February 17, 2009

You might want to consider RSS feeds?
posted by cashman at 6:21 PM on February 17, 2009

Combine what jclovebrew and TypographicalError suggest, and you'll have one button that you middle-click and get the desired result.
posted by qvtqht at 6:30 PM on February 17, 2009

Thirding C.D., seems like the easiest option. I always have three home pages each morning.
posted by saffry at 6:59 PM on February 17, 2009

I know you're looking for FF-specific answers, but if you jump to Safari, this feature is built-in. Safari is available for Windows and Mac OS X.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:19 PM on February 17, 2009

List as many websites as you want. Separate with a pipe: |.
and if you don't feel like typing all that in:

open a separate tab for each page > tools> options> Main > use current pages
posted by ljesse at 9:57 PM on February 17, 2009

Yup, had the same question a while ago, came to the same solution: Folder in the Bookmarks Toolbar, middle-click.
posted by svolix at 12:51 AM on February 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

thanks for the answers, the middle clicking idea seems to be the best of the bunch - so thanks to jclovebrew and TypographicalError
posted by nam3d at 7:33 AM on February 18, 2009

For anyone interested they can use this example Javascript bookmarklet and which will open each site in a new tab.

javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open('http://www.example.com/');%20%7D)();
javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open('http://www.example.com/');%20%7D)();
javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open('http://www.example.com/');%20%7D)();
javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open('http://www.example.com/');%20%7D)();
posted by nam3d at 9:59 AM on March 6, 2009

I tried that javascript, and it opened each site in it's own window, not seperate tabs.
posted by Fofer at 2:04 PM on July 2, 2009